Outhouse Editor

The Spirit #10I didn't like The Spirit that much but I do like Avenue Q.

Story: 5Art: 4My Score: 4

"I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.I wish enough "Hello's" to get you through the final "Good-bye.."

"I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.I wish enough "Hello's" to get you through the final "Good-bye.."

Garbage Collector

Good issue. Roscoe was a pretty well sketched character, and I liked seeing how his obsessions slowly consumed him throughout the story. It was also a good example of how powerful the character and idea of The Spirit is in that universe. The man himself is pretty ordinary, but his legend is anything but.

Garbage Collector

Good issue. Roscoe was a pretty well sketched character, and I liked seeing how his obsessions slowly consumed him throughout the story. It was also a good example of how powerful the character and idea of The Spirit is in that universe. The man himself is pretty ordinary, but his legend is anything but.

The point was, it's okay for fourthy to admit he liked Rent and there's no reason to think that makes him gay, which he thought we were indicating it did. Because if liking Ave Q doesn't magically mean you're gay, why would Rent?

The point was, it's okay for fourthy to admit he liked Rent and there's no reason to think that makes him gay, which he thought we were indicating it did. Because if liking Ave Q doesn't magically mean you're gay, why would Rent?

Staff Writer

The point was, it's okay for fourthy to admit he liked Rent and there's no reason to think that makes him gay, which he thought we were indicating it did. Because if liking Ave Q doesn't magically mean you're gay, why would Rent?

The point was, it's okay for fourthy to admit he liked Rent and there's no reason to think that makes him gay, which he thought we were indicating it did. Because if liking Ave Q doesn't magically mean you're gay, why would Rent?

Rain Partier

The hardest books for me to review are the books I liked, but didn't love. Books where I appreciate the craft, but it didn't quite leave me wanting more. I really enjoy writing reviews for books I thought were fantastic, or that took me by surprise. I take a different sort of pleasure from writing even just a scathing paragraph about a book I absolutely despise. But a book I thought was pretty good? Is a lot more difficult.

But hey, I liked The Spirit #10!

I just didn't love it.

So I will borrow a quote here from the real-life Mikhail Kalashnikov, from whom the unfortunate protagonist in the story is named probably and inventor of the AK-47: "Before attempting to create something new, it is vital to have a good appreciation of everything that already exists in this field."

It's clear David Hine has an excellent appreciation of what makes for classic Eisner-era Spirit: the self-contained and tidy story without a single sub-plot or loose end, the mix of genre elements using a crime, some wry humor, and even a little horror. But the story of this Kalashnikov,a mentally-ill burglar who hallucinates the crooked old fence he unloads his ill-gotten goods on is a giant bug and kills her then is haunted to suicide by an oath she makes before dying, first makes the reader empathize for the criminal by showing the horrific abuse he was subjected to as a child. The true villain here is the father, shown only in the beginning flashback. Even the old woman he kills--and no, "Mary Jane" doesn't do that--is crooked, herself a criminal and pretty despicable on top of that. So when he shoots her, I give a big ol' shrug of the shoulders, but poor Kalashnikov here totally fucking loses it and, in a classic "eaten alive by their own guilt" scene, sees reminders of The Spirit everywhere until he turns the gun on himself. Speaking of that gun, how exactly did Kalashnikov remember to ditch the used silencer, but not the gun itself? Or not notice the gun in his coat pocket before then, guns being sorta heavy? But then Roscoe K sets himself up for an episode of World's Dumbest Criminals and leaves his wallet on the table? I'm not sure this guy was cut out for the crime world, really.

Real-life Kalashnikov again: "Anything that is complex is not useful and anything that is useful is simple."

Ok fair enough, I won't ask any more questions. He has time for just one more dumb move, hiding in the basement instead of just tossing his rod like a sensible guy. Poor old Roscoe Kalashnikov. It seems very familiar somehow, like I've seen or read a very similar story before,and The Spirit himself is barely in the book at all, so it seems unfair to judge it as a Spirit book at all really--more like one of those archetypal morality tales we tell ourselves over and over.

The art is at times reminiscent of Eisner as well, but only at times. Oh, and if your gunman is left-handed in real life, he's also liable to be left-handed in his imagination--a minor quibble for sure. A bigger gripe would be that even as little as he appears, The Spirit's face looks actually swiped from Eisner in some panels and more like a weird pseudo-anime version of himself in others. It's not consistent, and in some panels I did not like how he looked at all. It definitely felt like there were two styles at war here, the artist's style, and the artist-doing-Eisner's style and you can't merely look like you're imitating a writer/artist creator of that calibur some of the time. Especially with coloring this bad. Seriously, I am not going to look for the colorist's name in case I remember it. Work on that level should be forgotten anyway. It was abysmal.

So, I would give this an 8, but the truly shit-bad peas 'n' vomit coloring drops me to a

Rain Partier

The hardest books for me to review are the books I liked, but didn't love. Books where I appreciate the craft, but it didn't quite leave me wanting more. I really enjoy writing reviews for books I thought were fantastic, or that took me by surprise. I take a different sort of pleasure from writing even just a scathing paragraph about a book I absolutely despise. But a book I thought was pretty good? Is a lot more difficult.

But hey, I liked The Spirit #10!

I just didn't love it.

So I will borrow a quote here from the real-life Mikhail Kalashnikov, from whom the unfortunate protagonist in the story is named probably and inventor of the AK-47: "Before attempting to create something new, it is vital to have a good appreciation of everything that already exists in this field."

It's clear David Hine has an excellent appreciation of what makes for classic Eisner-era Spirit: the self-contained and tidy story without a single sub-plot or loose end, the mix of genre elements using a crime, some wry humor, and even a little horror. But the story of this Kalashnikov,a mentally-ill burglar who hallucinates the crooked old fence he unloads his ill-gotten goods on is a giant bug and kills her then is haunted to suicide by an oath she makes before dying, first makes the reader empathize for the criminal by showing the horrific abuse he was subjected to as a child. The true villain here is the father, shown only in the beginning flashback. Even the old woman he kills--and no, "Mary Jane" doesn't do that--is crooked, herself a criminal and pretty despicable on top of that. So when he shoots her, I give a big ol' shrug of the shoulders, but poor Kalashnikov here totally fucking loses it and, in a classic "eaten alive by their own guilt" scene, sees reminders of The Spirit everywhere until he turns the gun on himself. Speaking of that gun, how exactly did Kalashnikov remember to ditch the used silencer, but not the gun itself? Or not notice the gun in his coat pocket before then, guns being sorta heavy? But then Roscoe K sets himself up for an episode of World's Dumbest Criminals and leaves his wallet on the table? I'm not sure this guy was cut out for the crime world, really.

Real-life Kalashnikov again: "Anything that is complex is not useful and anything that is useful is simple."

Ok fair enough, I won't ask any more questions. He has time for just one more dumb move, hiding in the basement instead of just tossing his rod like a sensible guy. Poor old Roscoe Kalashnikov. It seems very familiar somehow, like I've seen or read a very similar story before,and The Spirit himself is barely in the book at all, so it seems unfair to judge it as a Spirit book at all really--more like one of those archetypal morality tales we tell ourselves over and over.

The art is at times reminiscent of Eisner as well, but only at times. Oh, and if your gunman is left-handed in real life, he's also liable to be left-handed in his imagination--a minor quibble for sure. A bigger gripe would be that even as little as he appears, The Spirit's face looks actually swiped from Eisner in some panels and more like a weird pseudo-anime version of himself in others. It's not consistent, and in some panels I did not like how he looked at all. It definitely felt like there were two styles at war here, the artist's style, and the artist-doing-Eisner's style and you can't merely look like you're imitating a writer/artist creator of that calibur some of the time. Especially with coloring this bad. Seriously, I am not going to look for the colorist's name in case I remember it. Work on that level should be forgotten anyway. It was abysmal.

So, I would give this an 8, but the truly shit-bad peas 'n' vomit coloring drops me to a